This is a scalable context timeline. It contains events related to the event November 4, 2003: MP at Abu Ghraib Threatens Detainee with Mock Electrocution. You can narrow or broaden the context of this timeline by adjusting the zoom level. The lower the scale, the more relevant the items on average will be, while the higher the scale, the less relevant the items, on average, will be.

An Abu Ghraib detainee’s head hitting a wall on a different occasion. This takes place on December 2, 2003. [Source: Public domain]At Abu Ghraib, MP Cpl. Charles Graner is seen pushing a detainee into a wall, inflicting a 2.5 inch laceration on the detainee’s chin. A medic, Sgt. Neil A. Wallin, who claims he is not aware of the cause of the cut, gives him 13 stitches. [US Department of Defense, 8/23/2004 ]

Haj Ali Shallal Abbas. [Source: PBS]Haj Ali Shallal Abbas, a mayor in the town of Abu Ghraib, contacts US authorities at the Abu Ghraib prison facility to inquire about young Iraqis who have been arrested. He is then himself detained at the prison where, like others, he is subjected to an array of abusive tactics. He too blames first and foremost Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick and Cpl. Charles Graner. “Frederick had come once or twice with a group of dogs,” Abbas later recalls. “They would tie us to the doors and then unleash the dogs on us. Graner was a disgrace to all civilized and democratic values every day. Graner enjoyed seeing prisoners tortured and tied up in the cells.” Abbas had surgery performed on his left hand two weeks before his arrest and is awaiting a second operation. Graner focuses his cruelty on Abbas’ sensitive hand. Every day, Abbas says, “He made me put my hand out in the cell bars and would stomp with his boots on this hand.” Graner’s treatment causes his hand to become irreparably damaged. In late November, Abbas sees prisoners stripped naked, hooded, cuffed, and beat with shoes on the sensitive parts of their bodies. [ABC News, 8/8/2004] Abbas also claims to be the person in the iconic photographs of a man standing on a box, threatened with electrocution (see November 4, 2003). [NOW with Bill Moyers, 4/29/2005]

Top: a detainee cuffed to his bed with panties on his head on October 18, 2003. Bottom: a detainee given the same treatment on October 20, 2003. [Source: Public domain]Between October 17 and 22, several Abu Ghraib detainees are photographed cuffed in their cells with women’s panties wrapped around their heads. MP Charles Graner will later claim that he was ordered to strip, shackle, and hood some of these detainees as part of a sleep deprivation program. One of these detainees will later tell Army investigators. “They stripped me of all my clothes, even my underwear. They gave me woman’s underwear that was rose color with flowers in it, and they put the bag over my face. One of them whispered in my ear, ‘Today I am going to f_ck you,’ and he said this in Arabic. I faced more harsh punishment from Graner. He cuffed my hands with irons behind my back to the metal of the window, to the point my feet were off the ground and I was hanging there for about 5 hours just because I asked about the time, because I wanted to pray. And then they took all my clothes and he took the female underwear and he put it over my head. After he released me from the window, he tied me to my bed until before dawn.” The US Army’s Fay report will later conclude there was “ample evidence of detainees being forced to wear women’s underwear,” and that this may have been part of the military intelligence tactic called “ego down,” designed to break a detainee’s will power through abuse and sexual humiliation. [Salon, 3/14/2006]

Three Abu Ghraib detainees naked and cuffed together. [Source: Public domain]Three detainees at Abu Ghraib, suspected of having raped a male teenage detainee, are set aside for punishment and stripped by MPs. Pfc. Lynndie England describes the scene, apparently talking about Spc. Charles Graner and Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick II: “They started to handcuff the two rapist[s] together in odd positions/ways. Once the two were handcuffed together, the third guy was brought over and handcuffed between the other two. Then they were laying on the floor handcuffed together, so all the other prisoners could see them. Cpl. Graner and Staff Sgt. Frederick then asked me to start taking pictures with the camera.” [International Committee of the Red Cross, 2/24/2004 ]

Lynndie England drags a detainee known as Gus by a leash around the neck. Megan Ambuhl looks on. [Source: Public domain]At the Abu Ghraib prison, three detainees who were photographed naked the day before (see October 24, 2003), are again striped naked, handcuffed together, placed on the ground, and forced to lie on top of each other and simulate sex acts while they are being photographed. This treatment happens, according to a CID (Criminal Investigation Division) investigation, “on several occasions over several days.” Those present or participating in the abuse are the MPs Spc. Charles Graner, Ivan Frederick, Pfc. Lynndie England, and Spc. Sabrina Harman, all of the 372nd MP Company. Also directly involved are three military intelligence soldiers from the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion. Two of the military intelligence soldiers arrive at the Hard Site when the abuse is already taking place. One appears to have known beforehand that something was going to happen. [Washington Post, 5/22/2004] When they arrive, one MP is yelling through a megaphone at the naked detainees, who are forced to crawl on their stomachs and are handcuffed together. Gen. George Fay will later conclude in his report (see August 25, 2004) that this incident “was most likely orchestrated by MP personnel.” On the other hand, England says, “MI [Military Intelligence] Soldiers instructed them [MPs] to rough them up.” One of the most clearly humiliating photographs taken at Abu Ghraib is also dated October 25. It depicts an unidentified naked detainee, nicknamed “Gus,” with a leash around his neck and with the end held by Pfc. England. Spc. Megan Ambuhl is also present, watching. According to England, Cpl. Graner put on the leash and then asked her to pose for the photograph. [US Department of Defense, 8/23/2004 ]

The detainee nicknamed Gilligan stands on a box, fearing electrocution. Ivan Frederick stands at the side with a camera in his hands. [Source: Public domain]Spc. Sabrina Harman and Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick connect electric wires to the fingers, toes, and penis of a detainee who is jokingly referred to as “Gilligan.” Harman tells him that he will be electrocuted if he falls off the box he is standing on. She later tells investigators, who ask for an explanation, that she was “just playing with him.” [Washington Post, 5/22/2004] One picture taken of Gilligan standing on the box will later become iconic and will symbolize the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal. Frederick also will later recall telling the detainee he will be electrocuted if he falls off the box. [Los Angeles Times, 10/21/2004] An Army investigator had instructed Frederick to “stress out” the detainee so he will talk. The detainee allegedly knows the location of soldiers’ remains. Frederick says the investigator has told him he can treat the prisoner anyway he wants “as long as you don’t kill him.” Despite these directions, Frederick will later confess he was aware he is committing abuse. “I was wrong about what I did, and I shouldn’t have done it. I knew it was wrong at the time because I knew it was a form of abuse.” [New York Times, 10/21/2004] Haj Ali Shallal Abbas, the mayor of a nearby town, will later claim that he was the person photographed on the box (see Mid-October 2003-January 2004). [NOW with Bill Moyers, 4/29/2005] However, investigators will later conclude the person was someone else known as Saad. But Abbas was also in the same detention block that night, and investigators don’t rule out that more than one person was forced to stand on a box and threatened with electrocution. [Salon, 3/14/2006; New York Times, 3/14/2006] The next day, another detainee is also forced to stand on a box in a humiliating position (see November 5, 2003). Saad is a likely reference to Abdou Hussain Saad Faleh, detainee No. 18170. He is taken from his cell in the Hard Site in Abu Ghraib that night. He will later testify, “Mr. [Charles] Graner came and took me to room Number 37, which is the shower room, and he started punishing me. Then he brought a box of food and he made me stand on it with no clothing, except a blanket. Then a tall black soldier came and put electrical wires on my fingers and toes and on my penis, and I had a bag over my head.” [Washington Post, 5/21/2004; US Department of Defense, 8/23/2004 ]

Sabrina Harman giving the thumbs up over Manadel al-Jamadi’s dead body. [Source: Public domain]Detainee Manadel al-Jamadi, is brought to Abu Ghraib prison by US Navy SEAL Team 7. The Iraqi, captured during a joint Task Force 121/CIA mission, is suspected of having been involved in an attack against the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). [US Department of Defense, 8/23/2004 ] Members of the Navy SEAL team punch and choke Al-Jamadi and stick their fingers in his eyes. A SEAL lieutenant is involved in the abuse. [Associated Press, 1/11/2005] Al-Jamadi resists his arrest, and one SEAL Team member hits him on the head with the butt of a rifle. [US Department of Defense, 8/23/2004 ] MP Spc. Dennis E. Stevanus is on duty when two CIA representatives bring the man to the Hard Site. [US Department of Defense, 8/23/2004 ] Spc. Jason A. Kenner, an MP at Abu Ghraib, will later say the detainee was “in good health” when he was brought in. [Guardian, 5/20/2004] According to Kenner’s later account, the detainee’s head is covered with an empty sandbag. MPs are then ordered to take him to a shower room, and told not to remove the hood, according to Kenner. [Guardian, 5/20/2004] The detainee is then interrogated by CIA and military intelligence personnel. Less than an hour later, the detainee will be found dead (see (7:00 a.m.) November 4, 2003). [US Department of Defense, 8/23/2004 ]

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh dismisses photos taken of prisoners at Abu Ghraib over the course of several broadcasts. The excerpts are collected by Newsweek, researchers from the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and the progressive media watchdog site Media Matters. On May 3, he tells his listeners, “You know, if you look at—if you really look at these pictures, I mean, I don’t know if it’s just me, but it looks just like anything you’d see Madonna or Britney Spears do onstage—maybe I’m, yeah—and get an NEA [National Education Association] grant for something like this” (see October 2003, October 17-22, 2003, October 24, 2003, Evening October 25, 2003, November 4, 2003, November 4-December 2, 2003, and Between 4:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. November 4, 2003, among others). On May 4, he says: “You know, those [US soldiers in Iraq] are being fired at every day. I’m talking about people having a good time. These people—you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of needing to blow some steam off? … It is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation.” On May 5, he says: “I think a lot of the American culture is being feminized. I think the reaction to the stupid torture is an example of the feminization of this country.” On May 6: he says, “The thing, though, that continually amazes—here we have these pictures of homoeroticism that look like standard good old American pornography, the Britney Spears or Madonna concerts or whatever.… I mean, this is something that you can see onstage at Lincoln Center from an NEA grant, maybe on Sex and the City.” In that same broadcast, he praises the torturers by saying: “And we hear that the most humiliating thing you can do is make one Arab male disrobe in front of another. Sounds to me like it’s pretty thoughtful.… Maybe the people who executed this pulled off a brilliant maneuver. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got physically injured.… Sounds pretty effective to me if you look at us in the right context.” And on May 11, he says, “If you take these pictures and bring them back and have them taken in an American city and put on an American Web site, they might win an award from the pornography industry.” [Media Matters, 5/6/2004; Newsweek, 5/13/2004; Boehlert, 2006, pp. 118; Jamieson and Cappella, 2008, pp. 160]

The US television news media virtually ignores the court-martial of Specialist Charles Graner, who is charged with abusing and torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib (see May 19, 2004-March 22, 2006 and January 16, 2005), according to author and media critic Frank Rich. “[I]f a story isn’t on TV in America, it’s MIA in the culture,” Rich will write. Much of the broadcast coverage is focused on stories about President Bush’s upcoming inauguration and on Britain’s Prince Harry, who had dressed up in Nazi regalia for a costume party. The network and cable news stations grant Graner’s trial only “brief, mechanical” summations “when it was broadcast at all.” The usual claims that television news only focuses on lurid, scandal-ridden news stories do not apply here, Rich writes: “It surely didn’t lack for drama; the Graner trial was Judgment at Nuremberg turned upside down.” Viewers do not learn of defense lawyer Guy Womack’s claim during his closing argument that “In Nuremberg, it was the government being prosecuted. We were going after the order-givers. Here the government is going after the order-takers.” Rich will later write that if the American public could not be exposed to fictional films about World War II (see November 11, 2004), then it “certainly… could not be exposed to real-life stories involving forced group masturbation, electric shock, rape committed with a phosphorescent stick, the burning of cigarettes in prisoners’ ears, involuntary enemas, and beatings that ended in death (see May 3-11, 2004). When one detainee witness at the Graner trial testified… that he had been forced to eat out of a toilet, his story was routinely cited in newspaper accounts but left unmentioned on network TV newscasts.” [Rich, 2006, pp. 155]

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